Dominik Panka talks about his huge fold at the EPT Malta Main Event final table

Dominik Panka finished in third place at the EPT Malta Main Event for €347.300 and in addition to a great result and a pile of money, he also made an amazing laydown during 3-handed play that baffled many viewers. The young Polish pro has now shared the thought process behind the world class fold.

The hand in question happened during the (80k/160k-20k ante) blind level and Valentin Messina was in the chiplead.

Valentin Messina - 13.900.000
Dominik Panka - 4.655.000
Jean Montury - 8.300.000 

Messina raised to 325,000 on the button, Panka 3bet to 825,000 from the small blind with T-T and Montury made it 2.085 million from the big blind with Q-Q. Messina folded and Panka eventually laid his hand down aswell.

Panka talked to PokerStarsBlog about his fold.

"It's a very interesting hand. I got Tens in the small blind and Valentin raised the button. His range was super wide, he folded a couple of hands, since I had more blind on blind battles with Jean, but he has also raised 72 offsuit, so all in all his range was super wide. This presented a great spot for me to 3bet, which I made, but Jean responded with a large 4bet, and he is a tigther player.

I got a lot of information from my friends who were watching the stream, and they realized that he is giving off quite a few tells with his movements. I'm not an expert in live tells, but even I recognized that the way he puts his chips in the middle changes based on the strength of his cards. If he had good cards but didn't feel very comfortable with the situation he started stroking his chips. If he had premium cards he got a tower of chips in front of himself and played with it, and he also put the chips in the pot differently. He also raised smaller with his weaker hands. If he had AQ or 9-9 he would have raised to roughly 1.6 million. With these tells he gave off a lot of information about his hand. I could imagine him having A-K but I was pretty sure that I had to fold. In different circumstances, against a different players, Tens, in 3-handed play and 30 big blinds is clearly a premium hand and I would get my stack in the middle.

I also took into consideration that even though I will be left pretty short stacked, if I manage to double up quickly, I still have a pretty good chance. I felt like the most experienced player at the table and Valentin was a tougher opponent, Jean played predictably. I had a good read on him, I didn't feel like this hand was the right moment. I wouldn't have folded Queens, I would have never forgiven myself if I was ahead. Maybe I also put in the money with Jacks and A-K suited, but fortunately I had Tens."